Stranger
by CaptainPop
Summary: A continuation of Strange. Sam and Carly have moved to LA so Carly can attend UCLA and Sam worked in the films. Sadly, it seems that things have not gone as well as they had hoped.
1. Chapter 1

Stranger.

Carly shifted and stirred.

The bed felt cold. And that felt wrong.

She scrunched deeper into her comforter and pillows, trying to pull more warmth around her. Her eyes slowly cracked opened and she found herself staring blankly at the ceiling in the darkness of the room. She edged her left hand out to that side of the bed and found nothing, leaving her hand to rest there in the emptiness.

Gradually, she became more awake and rubbed her sleepy eyes, sitting up, gathering the comforter around her shoulders, hugging her knees to the chest. She looked around the darkness of her bedroom. The glow of the city that cast a twilight through the windows was enough to see shades of grey. She looked around again. The room was empty. The bedroom door was closed.

Her eyes focused on the bedside alarm clock. It was almost three in the morning. Beside the clock was the picture frame. She reached out for it and held it to her raised knees, angled so that she could see the image in the twilight. She touched the cold glass with her fingers, caressing the image of Sam smiling at her from that first day in L.A. The day they had moved into this tiny, cheap apartment. Back when they thought that anything was still possible.

A tear escaped her eyes and she quickly rubbed it away, but it was soon followed by more that flooded her cheeks until it was pointless to do anything but to let them flow.

She curled over onto her side in bed, facing what used to be Sam's side, and hugged the picture to her chest. Then, the sobbing began again in earnest.

When the first tendrils of dawn reached into the bedroom, Carly was still clutching the picture to her breast, but the tears had long since run out. At least for another night. She stared at the new morning, but without the feeling of hope and rebirth that greeted her in the past.

She sat up and looked at the face in the picture again. Sam was smiling like she had won the lottery, her eyes bright, her long blond hair tied back in a pony tail, sitting in the corner of the kitchen countertop, raising a bottle of beer in a salute to the camera. She was in those ugly blue denim bib coverall shorts she liked to wear with a blue t-shirt beneath. Carly only liked her wearing those by themselves. And she smiled at the memory of Sam in better days.

With a gentle kiss of her lips to the image of her love, her heart, she returned the frame to the table beside her bed. Then, she just lay there, on her side, staring at the picture and remembering.

The bedroom door flew open as Sam burst into the room, blond curls bouncing as she moved, her roll bag being tossed to the floor by the door in a single movement as she continued across the small bedroom to the closet and dresser.

"Hey, sleepy head!" Sam called as she moved. "Get up! The day's already started. I've been to the gym and a run and now I need a shower and food." Sam was rooting through the closet, pulling out those hideous coverall bib shorts. "Come on, lazy ass…jeeze, and I thought I was impossible to get outta bed." Sam rooted through the dresser drawers, pulled out a pair of boxers and a tank top and a pair of ankle socks. "Mind you, there are times when you make me want spend the rest of my life in bed. Would you get up and make me some grub, woman? I gotta be on set by noon." Sam blew Carly a kiss and vanished out the bedroom door.

Carly gave a heavy sigh and stared for a long time at the closed bedroom door as the memory faded. It was several minutes before she managed to summon the urge to climb out of bed and shuffle across to the door. She gave it a sad look before turning the knob and pulling the door open. She stood a moment in the open doorway.

Tears formed in her eyes and she fell back against the frame. She slid to her heels and hugged herself as another crying jag started. Carly let the tears fall. God, how she missed Sam. She was her strength. Without her, Carly had no reason to even get out of bed. Even after five days, Carly still had no idea how she would be able to go on.

Maybe it was because Carly still refused to accept that Sam was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

The coffee was instant, but it was hot.

Carly sat at the small kitchen table in Sam's chair against the wall, facing the apartment door which opened into the kitchen from the small walkup outside. Her knees were up to her chest and her bare feet perched on the edge of the seat. It felt good to just sit where Sam's body used to be, as if she were in her lap again, being hugged, being loved, being one.

Sam's mug was in her hands. It was the one with the bug-eyed pig on caffeine and a sinister grin and the words: _'Have a DAMN nice day!_' below it. She watched the faint steam rise above the black contents inside. Sam liked her coffee black. And instant. She had no patience for a brewer or the time it took to add milk and sugar. Carly preferred brewed and milk and sugar, but she had decided to drink it like this, in Sam's cup, in her memory.

She blew across the top and took a sip. She made a face. It tasted disgusting, and she wondered how Sam could drink it this way.

"Man, last night was a riot, Carls," Sam said as she rushed into the kitchen and made for the coffeemaker by the sink. "Who thought we could fit so many people in this tiny place? Awesome!" She grabbed her mug from beside the sink and grinned at the piggy on it. It always made her smile. She poured brewed black coffee into her cup. Carly always tried to keep a pot full for her so she wouldn't have to wait for the kettle to boil. "We gotta do it again." She chugged down half the cup and leaned against the sink, looking around. "We really should think about getting a larger place, though. I'm making good money. It's coming steadier, now. Once you're done with school and get a job at a big paper, or whatever you do with a journalism degree, we'll be rolling in it. That's if I'm not too low brow for you and your college friends…"

Carly always knew that Sam was worried about their future. The blond was always so pumped and full of ego that other people never saw the insecurities within her. They never saw the concern she had that Carly would began drifting away from her as she progressed through higher learning. Only Carly knew about the late nights when Sam would sneak out of bed and sit in the kitchen silently crying, usually after they had hung out with some of her college friends. Only Carly knew that, for all of Sam's bluster, she felt like she was not good enough for Carly Shay and that one day, she would leave her alone and vanish inside of a world of which she could not be a part.

She took another sip and imagined Sam. Did she know that Carly would give up everything just to be with her?

Sam was back in a white t-shirt and red khaki pants and black Converse hightops, her roll bag in her left grip, car keys in her right. "Ok, babe. I'll be on set all day. Big stunt we're doing. So, I won't be home until way late, K?" Sam winked at her. "Hey! Don't worry. I'm the best there is. There's not a stunt this Puckett can't do. I laugh when they say _dangerous_! Love ya, Cupcake!"

Invincible.

That was a word she had used to describe herself. As if by saying it, nothing would ever beat her. Like she could survive anything. No stunt was too dangerous. No jump too high. No explosion too…explosive. Whatever she did for whatever film she was doing, she never doubted herself or her abilities. That total confidence was one of the many traits Carly had fallen in love with. That confidence was how they had ended up together.

She smiled as she recalled that night on the Seattle pier.

"I knew you'd come around," Sam had said to her. "You just had to decide what you wanted. I merely prodded you in the right direction. Face it, Cupcake, we were always meant for each other. Like ham and bacon."

Carly never did find out which she was. Ham or bacon? The way that Sam lustily devoured ham, though, she hoped that was supposed to be Carly.

Her cell phone on the table buzzed. She had set it to vibrate, tired of the endless calls that sounded the ring tones. There was only one person that she really wanted to talk to, anyway. And that was never going to happen anymore. It rang three times yesterday from unknown numbers. And this was the first of today. She glanced at the Caller ID. Another unknown number. At least this one was in California. She leaned back in the kitchen chair and stared at the ceiling.

Spencer and Freddie were still high in the Colorado Mountains. If she had been in a better state at the time, she would have gone with them. If they had found anything, they would have called by now.

Five days.

"Damn it, Sam!" she shouted to the empty room. "Why couldn't you be patient for once in your life? Why couldn't you wait out the storm?"

Tears began to fall again. She knew the answer. Nothing would ever keep Sam from Carly. Not a storm over the Rockies, not a delayed commercial flight. She would always find a way back to her heart.

Carly wondered what was going through Sam's mind when the tiny Cessna went down.


	3. Chapter 3

It had to happen sometime.

Carly stared at the name on the screen of her phone. Spencer. There could only be two reasons that he was calling. One would be great. The other would be the most devastating news of all time. She held the phone in her hand as it hummed for the third time on this call, trying to decide if she was ready to hear the other news.

Tears were already forming in her eyes, threatening to over flow her lids. She was getting tired of crying. She flipped open the phone and put it to her ear and in a shaky voice, said: "Spencer?"

There was silence on the other end. A long, drawn out pause. This was not going to be the great news she had been praying for. Her big brother didn't have to say anything, but she patiently waited for him to confirm the news. As she listened, she realized that he was sobbing, trying to control his voice.

"Hey, little sis," he finally said, his voice strained and low. "How are ya holding up?"

Carly blew out her breath. "Spencer, just say it. I don't _want_ to hear it, but I _need_ to hear it. So, just _say_ it."

"Um…" Spencer was at a loss for how to begin.

"Sam's dead, isn't she?" Carly said, her voice dead and final.

More silence. "They're calling off the search, Carly. We found the plane last night. It…well, there was no way anyone could have survived that…"

"Sam?" Carly needed to know.

"Carly, listen," Spencer began in a much calmer voice. "The plane had been there for almost five days before we found it. That deep in the mountains, well, there are a lot of…um…wild animals. Ya know? And…and…um…"

"Tell me." Carly's voice was on the edge of sanity and fear.

"The pilot was jammed into his seat by the crash. There wasn't much left…" Spencer's voice trailed off. He took a deep breath, quite audible on the phone. "We found Sam's jacket further in the woods, ripped apart. It was…" another deep breath… "it was…well, they decided it was Sam."

Carly gripped the phone in both hands as if it was a lifeline. But, her legs failed her and she sank to the floor in the middle of the living room, splayed on her right hip, managing to stay sitting up as the world collapsed around her. The tears fell freely down her face. She was struggling to find breath. As if there was a weight on her chest. She had to focus to take in enough air to stay conscious.

"Carly…?" Spencer must have heard the struggle for breath. "Damn, it! I shouldn't have called. But, I wanted you to hear it from me before it was on the news."

"No…no, Spencer…" Carly was controlling her breathing a little better. "I'm…it was nice of you to call. If anyone was to break the news, I'm glad it was you." A thought flashed through her head. "Oh my God, Spencer! How's Freddie taking it?"

"Um…" another pause. "He'll be ok, sis. It hit him pretty hard…"

"Can I talk with him?" Carly needed to hear his voice. The three of them had always been connected and hearing Freddie's voice would be as close as she would ever come to hearing Sam's.

"Not right now, Carly. He…he isn't here. Freddie's still searching around the crash site." Spencer was quiet for a moment. "He hasn't…he hasn't given up, yet…" Spencer's voice cracked.

"Spencer? Spencer, it's ok," Carly soothed. "It's ok. You didn't give up. You just… you just accepted the…" Now Carly's voice was cracking, but she had to find it, for Spencer's sake. "Sam's dead. Spencer. We have to accept that. Freddie will come around when he's ready. Um…look, thanks for calling. But, I think I just need to be alone for a while. Okay?"

"Yeah…you gonna be okay?"

Carly had to be honest: "No. Not really. Don't worry, though, Spencer. I won't be doing anything stupid. I just want some time alone with my memories…"

"We'll be home as soon as we finish up here. About another day or two. And Carly…"

"Yeah, Spencer?"

"I'm sorry. I miss her too."

"I know…"

Carly slowly closed the phone and stared at it. In a sudden fit of rage she threw it with all of her strength against the wall. It shattered on impact into tiny pieces.

She sat on the floor, in their living room, surrounded by pictures and mementos, surrounded by Sam, tears falling harder than before but far too tired to sob. She stared blankly at nothing, no hope in her body, any strength that she had left evaporating. Her body was sagged, bent, broken. Sammy. Her Sammy. Gone.

She already knew that it was likely she did not survive the crash. Not after five days in the snowy mountains. But, she had hope. Without a body, she had hope. There was something to hold on to. Now, that too, was ripped away from her. There was nothing left to believe in.

And she wondered how could she go on.


	4. Chapter 4

"No storm's gonna keep Mama from her Cupcake!"

Carly recalled the last conversation they would ever have. Sam was adamant that she would be home on time for Carly. On time for what? They had no major plans. It wasn't a special occasion. Carly wasn't ill. The only need Sam had for coming home on time was her need for Carly. And, Carly didn't consider that she was worth the loss of the only person she ever loved. She could have waited for Sam. Hell, Sam waited a long time for her.

Carly wasn't crying anymore. She had run out of tears. Her body was wracked and exhausted. Her eyes were puffy and her nose was sore. Her face was probably a mix of pale and blotchy reds. She really didn't care how she looked.

Sam was feisty. And arrogant enough to take on Mother Nature. And was able to find the only bush pilot as crazy as she was to fly her over the mountains and through a storm. At least, Carly consoled herself, Sam was not alone when she died.

She took a long drink from the piggy cup. This time, though, it held something stronger than coffee. She had found the brandy they had saved in one of the cupboards. It had been a gift from one of Carly's college friends. Neither of them cared for Brandy. But, right now, it was the only thing she had to help numb the ache in her heart.

On her lap, on their sofa, was the photo album. How cliché was this, she had to think to herself. Mourning by looking through old pictures. Getting drunk off abandoned alcohol. Sam would have laughed long and hard at this pathetic scene. And the thought of Sam laughing made Carly smile.

"Oh my God, Carls! Remember that one?" Sam stabbed a finger at a picture of Freddie in a dress. It was an old one from their high school days. "That nub! Gotta admit, though. The nerd's got balls. Never would have thought he'd go through with the dare. But, he lost the bet and never welched. Ya gotta respect that."

Carly remembered the day the picture was taken. In the court at school. After Freddie had lost the bet to Sam on who could come up with the best birthday present for Carly. He had conceded defeat well. The alternative was that Sam would have to dress up girly and spend the day at school without bullying anybody. Something that neither Freddie nor she had told Sam was that Carly actually thought that Freddie's gift was better. Sam had taken a part time job to earn the money for tickets to a Cuddlefish concert for the two of them. Freddie had created a video montage set with a song that Sam and she loved, a montage of pictures of Sam and Carly throughout the years of their friendship. It was the fact that Freddie was selfless in his gift that won the day. The icing on the cake was when he told her to let Sam win just so she wouldn't have to be embarrassed at school.

Sometimes, Carly thought that Sam and Freddie's friendship was just as complicated and strange as theirs.

She turned the page. She smiled at a picture of Spencer unveiling his sculpture at City Hall. A series of pictures showing Spencer pulling away the cover to his sculpture, standing proud beside it, screaming a look of horror at the sculpture as it was in flames, and the picture of Sam putting the fire out with a big hose.

On another page was Sam's page. All pictures were of her at various stunts for Stunted Growth Stunt Coordination Company. High falls, fight scenes, driving stunts, jumps, pyrotechnics. Sam had become one of the busiest people in stunt show business in less than two years. She was amazing. Fearless.

"You could have stood being a bit less fearless," Carly had said to nobody. "Maybe you would still be alive right now."

"Can't change who I am, kid," came the reply from the blond leaning against the doorframe to the kitchen, munching on a slice of pizza. Why was that something they always had in the house, next to ham and bacon? The oven or the refrigerator always had a half-eaten box of pizza.

Carly looked at her love. At how beautiful she was. Her long curls of blond. The big grey-green eyes that always flashed just for her. The big-assed grin she wore, carefree. The world existed only for Sam. And Sam existed only for Carly.

"I miss you," Carly whispered.

Sam smiled and kept eating the pizza.

"Why did you have to die?" Oh, this was just dandy. Now she was carrying on a conversation with her delusions.

Sam moved over and sat across from her on the coffee table. Her skin was the slightest hint of tan. Carly tried to make out the freckles on her nose. She just sat there and stared at Carly with that toothy grin.

"Stop smiling!" Carly screamed, squeezing her eyes shut. "This isn't something you can laugh off! You're dead! You're dead because you couldn't wait! You're dead because you think nothing can stop you. You're dead because you think you're invincible!"

Carly opened her eyes. Sam was gone. Her throat felt sore from shouting.

"You're dead."


	5. Chapter 5

The sun was low in the sky. It was going down. Dying.

Carly was getting tired of things dying.

She watched the light being sucked from the sky as the sun faded to the dusk. The brandy was gone and she was back to drinking coffee. Still with the piggy cup. It was her last connection to Sam's lips.

There was no more phone, so no more phone calls. That was just fine with her. She was tired of intrusions today. She just wanted to be left alone to deal with her tragedy.

Carly had not turned on any lights and the rooms of the apartment grew darker with the fading day. She never even got dressed, still wearing Sam's boxers and tank top. And she wandered aimlessly from room to room.

Maybe tomorrow she would shower and try to go outside. Pick up the pieces of her shattered life. Move forward. Sam had said that once: _You can only move forward_.

The voice of Sam in her head was getting harder to hear. As if she was forgetting what she sounded like. And Carly had not seen any more delusions since she had yelled at Sam. Maybe she had needed to vent her frustration in order to grieve.

She walked out of the living room with her empty cup. She couldn't stay in there. Too many memories staring back at her. She went to the kitchen for what was likely her twentieth coffee that day. The empty bottle of brandy stared mockingly at her. It had been of little use. Maybe she had been too far gone to even be helped by booze.

She turned on the kettle to warm up the water for instant. There was about one more cup left in the Maxwell House bottle. She stood there, staring at the kettle by the sink. You know, watching a kettle will not stop it from boiling. She had discovered that five times today.

Five.

Five damned days. Five damned days of hell. Five days since she heard that Sam's plane went down in the storm. Five days of searching through the mountainside for the crash site. Five days to learn that her world was as fucked up as the crash. Five days since she had last heard Sam's beautiful voice say: _I love you, cupcake_.

Maybe seeing the delusions was not all that bad.

The kettle burbled at her, steam racing out of the spout. She shut it off. She dumped the remains of the instant coffee from the bottle to the piggy mug. Then, she scooped in two spoonfuls of sugar. She wished she had not run out of milk, but at this point she wasn't that bothered with drinking it black. With sugar. She held the mug and poured in the hot water, set the kettle down on the counter and began to stir with her spoon. It had become very mechanical. Almost zen.

She turned and leaned against the kitchen counter, in the vee corner that Sam always liked. It was her spot in the kitchen. Her perch. Shared only with Carly on…um…certain occasions that required the specific layout of that part of the counter.

Carly grinned at the dark thought as she sipped from the mug.

"Ow!! HOT!!" she shouted, jerking her face away from the mug and the mug from her face. The hot liquid spilt on her hand, scalding without milk to cool it, burning her hand. In shock she released the mug! "SHIT!"

All she could do was watch the mug tumble to the tile floor and shatter like a black explosion on impact, pieces of ceramic flying everywhere, hot coffee splattering her feet and shins.

She gasped. No. Why this? She crouched to try and hold the mug back together. Frantically, as if piecing Sam together. It was so obviously a waste of time and she just squatted there with two of the bigger pieces in her hand, staring at them. Sam would have been pissed.

"Is that my cup?" came Sam's voice.

Carly sighed and looked up at the legs of another delusion. A delusion with a box of pizza. How very Sam to have food in hand even in a delusion. She stared down at the mug. It was irreparable.

Sam squatted opposite her, picking the two fragments out of her hand. "Carls, it's just a cup." Sam could never be mad at Carly. "No biggy."

Carly let her gaze rise to look at Sam's face. Even a delusion would be preferable to nothing. Sam's eyes were glossy bright and that shit-faced grin was from ear to ear. The hair was held back in a pony tail. And she had cuts on her face. Was this the last delusion? The letting go? Seeing Sam as she probably was after the accident. Not the perfect image in her head, but accepting that Sam was dead, how she must have looked at the end. Before the animals…

She wished that she could just reach out and touch her again.

"Why did you have to die?" Carly whispered.

Sam's eyes frowned. "Carly. Cupcake." She cocked her head to the side. She put down the pieces of broken mug. She reached out and held Carly's trembling hands. "I'm right here."


	6. Chapter 6

Carly shifted and stirred.

The bed felt odd.

She scrunched deeper into her comforter and pillows, trying to pull more warmth around her. Her eyes slowly cracked opened and she found herself staring blankly at her nightstand and the picture of Sam in the kitchen. And she remembered. Sam had come to her in the kitchen. She had touched her hands. Carly had passed out.

She woke up a little more. The feeling of Sam lingered. In her mind and here in their bed. The comforter fell against her back as if Sam was there, pressed against her back, hands wrapped around her waist. She slowly reached her hand behind her to feel the emptiness on Sam's side of the bed.

Carly froze. Ice ran through her body and she turned cold. Instead of reaching behind her, she slowly moved her arm forward and found the lamp. With a press of the switch, the bedroom was flooded with light. She drew her arm back into the comforter. And she laid there motionless.

After several minutes, Carly summoned the nerve to pull back the comforter and swing her legs out of the bed. She pushed herself up and took a couple of hesitant steps away from the bed. She stopped in the middle of the room and took a deep breath. She tried to summon the nerve to turn around.

Slowly, as if her legs had no will, Carly turned around to face the bed. She froze in mid turn as her eyes found it. Her eyes went wide. Shock hammered her body and she felt her sanity begin to slip away.

Sam was sitting up in the bed, on her side of it, staring at her with concern.

"Carly?" Sam said and the world began to tunnel out in Carly's eyes, as if Sam were at the end of a very long tube.

She saw Sam jump out of the bed and race to her. An interactive delusion. She felt herself begin to drop, her legs no longer able to support her weight. And then Sam's arms were on her, holding her up, hugging her and falling with her to the carpet, holding her tight.

Carly started crying as Sam tried to soothe her, stroking her hair, putting her lips to Carly's cheek. The touch of Sam was like electricity and Carly felt that she was slowly going mad.

"Carly," Sam warned. "Stay with me this time…"

Carly slowly looked up at Sam's face, hovering inches above her own, and found worried grey-green eyes. They looked at each other for forever and a smile slowly grew on Sam's scarred face. Carly reached a hand up and touched Sam's face and felt solidity and warmth. A confused look dominated Carly's face.

"Sam…?"

"Yeah."

"Am I going mad?"

"Why would you think that you were going mad, Cupcake?" Sam's eyes twinkled.

Carly searched her eyes for something. "Are you dead?" she said plainly.

Sam shook her head, chuckling. "I guess you're the last to know, Carls. I'm invincible."

"Are you really here? Or is this a dream?" Carly whispered.

"I'm really here, babe. You don't get rid of ol' Sammy that easily." Sam helped her girlfriend to her feet and led her back to the bed. They sat together, facing each other, fingers interlaced. "And, if you hadn't have destroyed your phone, you'd already know this. No wonder I couldn't reach you."

Carly furrowed her brow. "Reach me?"

"Carls, I've been trying to call…" Sam took a deep breath. "After the plane went down –"

"Wait! How did you survive the crash? Spencer said –"

"Shh…" Sam soothed. "Look. The plane I took was a little sketchy, but the pilot was the only one willing to fly through the storm. I sat in the back since he had a mystery passenger in the front with him. The kind with no names, no faces. Get what I mean?"

Carly nodded, not really getting it.

"Yeah. Anyway, the guys a bit of a whiner, but whatever. As long as it gets me home to you, I figure. So, we're flying low, trying to avoid radar or something, not really sticking to a flight path, when the wings ice up and the engine stalls and suddenly down we go. Boom! Right into a pile of snow."

Carly listened, her eyes never leaving Sam's. Her grip like a vice in case Sam was only a vision and could vanish at any moment.

"I'm in the back and being, well, invincible, I survived," Sam beamed. "The other two, well, were killed on impact. I crawled out and started going down. I figured, what with the storm, I had a better chance at walking out to a road or something."

"But, Spencer found your jacket…"

"Yeah, I had to give it to the whiner to shut him up. Oooh? I'm sooo cold, he minged. After the crash, I couldn't get it off him, so made due with a blanket from the back seat. It took a couple days, but I reached a cottage with a phone. I tried to call you, but you wouldn't answer. So, I got some warm gear and some food and followed this mountain road down to a highway and thumbed a ride. I tried to call you from a couple of truck stops, but…hey, why didn't you answer your phone, anyway?"

Carly shook her head, laughing. "I only wanted to talk to you…"

Sam grinned: "Figures… I got into town and grabbed a cab home as quick as I could."

Carly narrowed her eyes. "Wait a minute…didn't you have pizza in your hands?"

"Oh…yeah…I stopped for pizza on the way here…" Sam looked a little sheepish. "You know me…"

Carly grinned and shook her head, hugging her hands behind Sam's neck and pulling her in for a long, slow kiss. Sam's lips were the only food Carly wanted right now.

Their lips devoured each other's passion for an eternity. Carly hugging Sam's neck; Sam hugging Carly's back. And Carly never once closed her eyes. She watched her lover like a junkie does the needle. There was no way Sam was going to get away, delusion or not.

Sam eventually broke the embrace to get some air. "Wow…I should go away more often…"

The look Carly gave her spoke volumes against that idea. "Not likely…" A thought popped into her head. "Oh my good God! Spencer! Freddie!"

"Woah, Miss Frantic…" Sam stopped her before she took another panic attack. "I called them from the pizza place. I didn't even know they were out there looking for me. Shoulda guessed that, I suppose." She shook her head and laughed. "And that dumb-assed Fredweirdo was still out there looking for me. Jeeze, I knew he had a crush on me, but…"

Carly thumped her in the arm. "Be nice…" But, they were both all smiles and warmth.

Carly stopped laughing and gave Sam a very long and hard look. As if she was really trying to puzzle her lover out.

"What?" Sam asked nervously.

"You must have been…it must have been hard. The crash. The cold. But, you kept moving. Kept coming home…"

"To you, babe. Always to you. Just like Mama promised."

"You really are invincible."

"Only as long as you're here, babe." Sam patted Carly's knee, then stretched and got up from the bed. "But, right now, I'm sore and tired and what I really want most of all is a cup of coffee…"

"Um…" Carly blushed… "About that…"


End file.
